Would you like to be able to do something in particular in Xubuntu, but don’t know if and how it is possible? Do you have your own Xubuntu tip you’d like to share? Perhaps you would like to make a guest post which you think would add some value to this blog?

If your answer to any one of these questions is yes, then I invite you to leave a comment on this post (be sure to leave your correct email address!) and I’ll get in touch with you. Of course I won’t use your email address for anything else😉

Note: do not use this as a support forum! If you need help with anything I’ll be glad to help you, but then contact me using the contact form on the About page.

Toad, unfortunately the SLED menu is a Gnome Panel applet and cannot be used in Xubuntu. Well, actually, it might just be possible using the xfapplet Panel Plugin which allows you to use Gnome Panel Applets but those require loads of Gnome dependencies. I might just do a post on Xfapplet (and perhaps the SLED menu) just before an upgrade if I don’t forget😉

I’d really like to see a guide to setting up remote access with Xubuntu. It’s really easy with Ubuntu, so I have one of my old computers set up so I can access it with my Windows laptop through Real VNC. But I really want to switch over to Xubuntu to get more performance out of the old box, and I’ve never quite figured out how to get remote access running.

hello!
Your blog is awesome, dude! Thanks for creating it
I also have a blog that tells (sometimes) about ubuntu and kubuntu, but in this new version 7.10, I would like to give a try to xubuntu.

I used sometime xubuntu but I don’t used it in the…er… ‘power user mode=on’, can you understand me?

In my experience, I noticed MANY things that works on ubuntu (basic installation), that doesn’t work on kubuntu, like my printer (hp laserjet 1010, and my cellphone, a samsumg e250, and my video card: ati 9250). I would like to know if the compatibility between x/k/ubuntu is better than the previous version. Thank you!

pascutti, I’m not too sure about this since I don’t use Ubuntu nor Kubuntu, but I can imagine that the compatibility between Ubuntu and Xubuntu is better than between Ubuntu and Kubuntu since they both make use of many the same libraries… But perhaps I should install Ubuntu again sometime🙂

(I got the feeling that this page isn’t really working out… I can’t answer about every request made here *sigh*)

– The reason why the XFCE-program manager was dropped for the Gnome system monitor was not only the extra info. In Feisty there was a bug in the XFCE program manager that would lead to a out-of-memory system crash when running large SH scripts a.k.a a memory leak. Took my ages to figure that out. The enr result was me replacing the manager with the gnome-system monitor as well which fits fine. A good choice.

– Totem still crashes on my PC, replaced it VLC media player.

– Thanks for the clipman tip, that was a big annoyance to me already for a long time.

Vincent, I wrote about it in another post, but now I see there is a discussion dedicated to post requests.

I am running Gutsy on one laptop, and I’d like to find out how to turn off nm-applet and have the network configuration loaded from a .conf file.

The problem is that nm-applet asks for the keychain password after I log in – which is inconvenient. I only use one network, the settings are constant, so there is no need to have this process loaded all the time.

Jouke, I think it will be great if you could make a full list of your observations. I set up Xubuntu on a new [old] computer and some things don’t work as expected. I can’t blame it on my lack of skills because the computer is old and some of its hardware can have issues – so I can’t be sure if the problem exists because the machine is old, or because I’m doing something wrong.

For example, whenever I scroll a window, I see little white dots (which look like video noise) on some parts of the screen. My guess is that it is the video card’s driver (the system is an IBM Thinkpad A22m), but I can’t check that and be sure (I don’t know how to check that).

I am so glad I stumbled onto your blog… I have not used any Linux except for a test of running off a CD-ROM a year or so ago, but I did use Unix in graduate school about 12 yrs ago. I’ve got a couple of old laptops that I will be putting new hard drives in and installing xubuntu using your instructions… they look really clear…

Once I get up and going in xubuntu I want to do the following:

– Find a package and compile / launch it in xubuntu – being a noob can you do a post on this general process so that it does not seem to scarry?

– Specifically, I want to use the xubuntu powered laptops for two primary tasks: Writing (Science Fiction / Fantasy) and Writing C# apps in Mono / MonoDevelop. What notetaking / writing apps can I compile for xubuntu? And would you think about doing a post on geting MonoDevelop up and running?

First of all, there is no more need to compile applications. Installation of applications is extremely simple, but I think a post on methods of application installation is a good idea🙂

In the same way, the installation of MonoDevelop is just as easy. Unfortunately, I do not develop in C# or write anythin more than school essays, so I can’t really help much more. If, by writing apps, you just mean a word processor then the one that comes with Xubuntu, Abiword, is quite good, though, if you want something more powerful, you should try OpenOffice.org’s word processor (again, easy installation). Both of these word processors are available for Windows and Mac OS X too (though for the latters, OpenOffice.org is called NeoOffice) so you can try them out on other operating systems too.

Hi,Could you help me in getting xubuntu to show the same screen that we see when we start the computer(the blue bar loading) during shut down too.I mean with the bar receeding.When i press shutdown,all i see is some text and finally the shut down.I wanna make xubuntu look more polished.Thanks

Ace, unfortunately, this is not possible AFAIK because of the command issued when you press the Shutdown button in Xfce’s logout dialog (Kubuntu has the same problem). However, if you insist on a polished shutdown, a workaround is to first logout and then press Shutdown in the login screen, which will display Usplash (the application that displays the bootup and shutdown screen).

Thanks for you very much for all your hints on setting up the xubuntu on a USB drive. I have just have one question for you. At this point i am working with a VIA mini-itx board that i will use to control a robot. I was hoping to use a usb drive that boots xubuntu. At this point i am able to boot fine but it seems that after i make changes to the os, like install a new tool or such, then reboot i loose everything and i have to do it all over again. I understand the casper-rw is used for that purpose but it seems to not be working for me. I am sure there is probably a simple solution to this. I was wondering if you can please help me out.

I wanted to know about Xubuntu/Xfce’s Drag and Drop capabilities. I’ve figured out that you can drag and drop from the AppFinder to a Launcher Properties dialog and also to the Menu Editor, but that seems like it for Drag and Drop. Is that a bug or a feature? Am I missing something here? The XDND standard doesn’t seem to indicate such limited drag and drop. Maybe there needs to be a pasteboard server created for Xfce? Thoughts?

James, when I browse a folder with videos in Thunar I get video thumbnails… Or should they be playing? If that is the case then I can imagine that to be an intentionally unimplemented feature as it probably is hard to implement in an efficient (speed-wise) way.

If the thumbnails just do not show up for you, then you might want to report a bug.

Being new to Linux and Xubuntu if something isnt working out of the box I assume that I need to do another step to get it to work rather than it being some random bug. Are you saying that I should have video thumbnails as soon as I have installed the codecs to play the videos?

I know that I have not done anything special to get these thumbnails working. If this is a default Thunar feature then it ought to be working when the appropriate codecs are installed. I’m not sure which codec package Thunar uses, but I think that if you have the restricted extras installed you should be fine. If not, then it’s probably a bug (yes, they do happen😉 ) and if not, you will probably find a solution among replies to your bugreport🙂

If you still feel uncomfortable filing a bug report, then I recommend you to sign up for the Thunar mailinglist and ask it there, as I’m afraid I don’t have enough experience regarding thumbnailers and Thunar to help you. Sorry😦

Great blog! I’ve been a Ubuntu user since Feisty who is starting to check out what else there is besides Gnome, and I’ve just installed Xubuntu (Hardy). Here’s something simple to fix that’s not well documented… Wireless adapters (in my case, for a Belkin Wireless G USB adapter) using the rt73usb driver connect at only 1Mb/s out of the box! The super-simple workaround is found here (it took me over an hour to find it)…http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4869076&postcount=25

Upon reboot, my connection automatically connects at 54Mb/s. Now to find out how to disable the Keyring prompt (you haven’t tried Hardy yet, Have you? Password protection is a tad excessive;)

Thanks! I hope other people will find your comment now that you mentioned it here and named the rt73usb and whatnot. I can’t write posts on individual problems with individual hardware, however, as there are a *lot* of such cases, and my tutorials are mostly about using Xubuntu, in a standard setup (i.e. assuming there are no specific bugs).

I know NetworkManager used to do that keyword-prompt thingy a lot in the past, but thought it was solved.

This WFM to disable the ‘ Enter Password …default keyring…unlock dialog… ‘ on a freshly installed Xubuntu Hardy system…
sudo aptitude install libpam-gnome-keyring
sudo thunar
~navigate to /etc/pam.d
~open the file gdm in mousepad and add…
auth optional pam_keyring.so try_first_pass
session optional pam_keyring.so
~…to the bottom of it, save and exit. Reboot. Now the dialog will have a checkbox to automatically log in, check the box, enter the password one last time and buh-bye dialog. I had the same password for the keyring as for session log-in, I don’t know if that matters. I hope that will help a few people.

You also need to open Synaptic (Applications->System->Synaptic Package Manager) and install the xfce4-xfapplet-plugin and gnome-applets packages. The first one allows you to run GNOME panel applets in the Xfce panel, the latter is a collection of GNOME applets, one of which is the application menu which Mint Menu needs.

After you’ve installed those you can install Mint Menu using the package you just downloaded. If you then click on your Xfce panel with your right mouse button and select Add New Item you get a list of Xfce panel plugins. Add the XfApplet plugin. A window will then pop up allowing you to choose from the installed GNOME panel applets, one of which is Mint Menu.

And there you have it: Mint Menu on Xubuntu 8.04🙂

(Note: I didn’t follow all these steps because I didn’t want to install gnome-applets, so if you run into problems, please leave another comment or send me an email.

How to enable Remote Access via VNC in Xubuntu Hardy
First, use Synaptic to install vino. Then, run “vino-preferences” in a Terminal, to set your connection preferences (require password, etc). Finally, open Autostarted Apps (from Settings Manager). Add an entry to run /usr/lib/vino/vino-server on startup. Reboot.

Once you have followed these steps, you will have a working VNC server on your machine. However, no-one will be able to connect if you have the “ufw” firewall enabled. To enable access through the firewall, you will have to do “sudo ufw allow from [remote IP] port 5900,” or something like that. I don’t use the firewall at home, so I’m not sure.

I’m just curious about this live-usb ability to carry out a fully persistent system in a flashdrive. And since sidux has already implemented a install-to-usb assistant I’m wandering if it would be something similar in Xubuntu 8.10 =)

The Ubuntu developers plan to officially support USB installation by creating a cross-platform utility similar to Fedora’s new LiveUSB Creator that will take an ISO CD image and automatically generate a modified version that will be written to a USB disk.

A closer look on Launchpad shows that there is a blueprint and a specification relating to Ubuntu USB installation images, which seem mostly aimed at installing Ubuntu from a USB drive instead of to a USB drive. I’m not sure what Ars’s sources are. Obviously, I’m hoping they’re not this blueprint and that there really are plans for this, but I fear the worst…

I’d like to do that, unfortunately, I don’t know how to do it myself. Plus, it would need to be quite comprehensive, involving different theming engines and their respective options. There is a tutorial available, and there’s probably documentation available for most engines as well (otherwise, you might want to take a look at existing themes and see what they’re doing – it’s not that difficult).

Those CD-ROM’s are Windows-specific but not needed at all. When you want to connect to the internet in Xubuntu, you use NetworkManager, the icon the top right-hand corner of your screen. Your network should be listed there, which you can click to configure it. If you don’t know what to enter, call your internet provider’s tech support to provide you with the details.

I might indeed once try my hands at first installing Ubuntu minimal and then installing Xfce on top of that, which supposedly gets really fast results (but is a bit more work). No timeframe though, I’m quite busy nowadays so I don’t have that much time for playing with my computer anymore🙂

There’s alot of fuss about LXDE and Lubuntu these days, and alot of talk about how Xubuntu is “not lightweight anymore.”

But LXDE is just buggy as all getout. I have been using LXDE since I read about it’s super-lightweightness, small RAM usage, etc. But then I also read about how Linux is MEANT to run more in RAM to truly speed it up.

I haven’t given Xfce a fair chance at all. I went from Gnome to KDE (omygosh, waaaaay slow!), then LXDE because of what I had read. LXDE prob’ly has a bright future, but it’s under such heavy development right now and they keep changing stuff, and it pulls in a surprising number of unexpected dependencies. And for me, it’s been just buggy.

I’d like to see some reviews by Xubuntu users who have tried LXDE. All the comparisons I’ve read show the “hard data” that indicates memory usage and such, but they don’t describe the EXPERIENCE of LXDE vs Xfce. That’s what I’m interested in.

I installed a xubuntu Restore system on a pc to take snapshots to the pc’s on the network- the utility is called “RESTORE” turns out is outdated and it will not install samba- i had to upgrade to a newer version but the utility does not work on it.

Do you know of a Xubuntu Utility that will take snapshots of my windows pc’s network?

My Xubuntu experience has been quite trouble-free so far (except for SOUND – why the heck PulseAudio appears in version 10.04 is beyond me… sound was fixed by removing it). It works wonderfully on my old hand-me-down Dell Dimension.

But please – you shouldn’t go a whole year without any posts to the “official” (?) Xubuntu blog!

Hi Robin, it has indeed been a while, which has mostly to do with my lack of time. Writing a blog post for this blog takes up quite some time, which I just don’t have anymore. This doesn’t just affect my ability to write new posts, but also my ability to try new things with Xubuntu, or even be involved with Xubuntu as much as I used to. My apologies.

That said, it should be noted that this is not the official Xubuntu Blog (there is no)…

Again, I’m sorry I can no longer keep this blog up to date, but that’s the way it is…

I want the shortcut super_L + D at keyboard minimize all my windows in xubuntu, making que desktop background accessible, and the same shortcut maximizing back all my windows. I searched a lot for this, but cannot find. Someone could help me, please? (Sorry for bad english, I’m not a native english).

Hi Arpinus, I’m afraid I have to say it pretty much is – the second-to-last post is even from 2011. I’m leaving it up and am keeping an eye on the comments because there’s still information that I think is useful to some, but I haven’t been using Xubuntu for quite a while though….